People with Affinity to Jewish People Report, Israel 2017

The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs in Israel in 2017 released a comprehensive report titled “Report of the Public Advisory Committee for Examing Israel’s Approach Regarding Worldwide Communities with Affinity to the Jewish People”.

The report is interesting first because it uses new language to describe people of Jewish descent who may not be regarded as legal Jews - communities or People with Affinity. It recognised that Israel needs to formulates some proactive policy responses to people who are the legacies of the Inquisition and forced conversions more generally.

There has been a tide towards people wanting to explore their Jewish backgrounds and identities. The report’s authors describe this desire as an “ unprecedented surge... in individuals and groups seeking to establish affinity with the Jewish people”.There could be at least 5 million people globally of Jewish descent! it’s worth having a read of this report, in very user friendly language : http://www.mda.gov.il/antisemitism/documents/eng200818.pdf

Update on Leopold Emmanuel Jacob Van Dort

I have now accumulated lots of information from a variety of source in Hebrew and Dutch and will now be making a separate chapter on this amazing man. I am holding the information back for publication, however I will mention that contrary to certain views he had both a wife and a daughter. People need to be careful about asserting that just because family research shows individuals to be baptised in the Dutch Reform Church that they were 100% Christian. People were baptised for all sorts of reasons aside from faith issues. Baptism into Christianity gave people access to legal marriage, property rights and in some cases citizenship, so there were incentives.Research has shown that many people lived with so called double identities and really struggled, many also used multiple names.